Watch our slide show to see Tony's fantastic demo come to life!

 

Tony told us he paints landscapes or seascapes and he uses oil paints in the traditional method.  He uses turps, linseed oil and often uses beeswax.  Tonight he was using hardboard on which to paint.  He had already painted it with gesso to give a good smooth key but also to produce some interesting texture.  He was using oil colours in earthy colours like red and yellow ochre which were thinned with white spirit.  The other thing he was using to adjust and soften his work was a simple rag!

 

‘I like to paint seascapes and to adopt Turner’s style’ he told us. ‘I will use a Van Dyke Brown to start us off – I work quite loosely – a little yellow ochre in there to warm it up with just a bit of turps on the brush to get going.   Buff titanium and ultramarine to start things off in the sky.  Got a storm cloud coming in!  I’m working with 6 colours on my palette: White, Brown, Yellow and Red Ochre, Buff Titanium & Ultramarine.

 

Tony gave us a running commentary so that we could follow what he was doing, how he was doing it, and what he wanted to achieve.  ‘It starts to gradually build up’ he told us ‘a touch of white and yellow ochre.  Light on the horizon – the initial layout and then we can start to build up the sky.  I like to use colour on colour so we get a build up and unity.  A touch of blue in the foreground just to get things moving.  You can see straight away we are getting there.  This is the beauty of oils – if you make a mistake you can just rub it off!  I don’t like the quick drying oils – they are too transparent and generally have not enough pigment.  And I don’t like the water based ones either!  I like to use Michael Harding Oils – they are expensive but have so much pigment in them.’  He demonstrated this fact by using some blue in the sky.  It had a wonderful depth of colour and luminosity too.

 

He was now mixing his paints with turps again so they would dry quite quickly. ‘I like to use ‘Zest It’ which is a glazing medium.  I do like moving quite fast.  I enjoy using one brush – when it gets too dirty I change to a cleaner brush and I use my fingers a lot!’  He started using a palette knife to put some heavier colour and shape into his picture. ‘I don’t go too much on a dead flat horizon’ he said ‘I like to blur the edges so you don’t see where the horizon starts and finishes.’  With the cloth he wiped across the picture pulling the paint off.  ‘That’s about where I leave it if I’m painting in the open and finish it off later.  I don’t usually take photos – I just remember it.  I’ll let that one dry for a while.’

 

Putting the first painting down and taking up another he said - ‘And here’s one I did earlier!   You can see a little touch of light here and there.  This glazing material smells of oranges.  Don’t use a hairdryer on it by the way or you’ll be as high as a kite!!  Where white spirit or turps gives a flatness to the picture this semi-gloss ‘Zest It’ from Loveleys gives a transparent glaze.  It stays tacky for 2 hours then gets too sticky to work with.  Put it on fairly thick or neat and the dry colour shows through.  It gives a good effect.  You can’t do this outside though as it attracts flies and wasps!  It builds up a beautiful luminosity and depth of colour.  I don’t like to leave too many brush marks – I like to get it flat and smooth as possible.  And for colour just brown and ultramarine - colours that Turner would have used, mixed with Zest it!  Linseed oil works the same but takes longer to dry.  It gives the same effect.  A linseed and turps 50/50 mix works quite well – get it on quite thin.  I also use beeswax from a beeswax candle, oil it down (50% beeswax, 40% linseed, 10% turps).’

                                               

‘Add a little bit more depth to the clouds.  It’s getting quite sticky now.  Windsor and Newton fast drying white undercoat dries really quickly and is great for highlights.  A little buff titanium now.  Just going to run in a little light on the sea.’  He used a palette knife here – ‘a couple of highlights to give a little more interest and when this is done we’ll glaze again with yellow ochre and ‘Zest It’ all over to give you that Turneresque glow in the sky.  Turner actually used a palette knife in most of his later paintings.’

 

Tony continued: ‘A little yellow ochre and red to warm it up a bit on the foreground.  So much pigment in there it’s really quite flat – palette knife again!’  He finished with his fingers – ‘you get the changes – different colours coming through.  Just darken the sky down a bit more.  I’m going to use brown in a thin wash.   Then a little tickle with the palette knife and the fingers’.  This way he darkened up the clouds and the brown turned into the heavy cloud colour.  ‘A little drop of ultramarine to even it up – with a little red and yellow ochre.  All these earthy colours complement one another quite nicely!’

 

He darkened up the foreground and explained one of his ‘tricks’ was to put a mark rather than a church spire for example so that people could interpret the painting for themselves their own way!  Now using the palette knife and the quick drying white paint he added touches to the horizon.  While he was working he told us that normally he would be working on four or five paintings in various stages of drying.

 

He wanted to show us his scumbling techniques.  For this he used a stiff hog brush.  Usually he would use synthetic delicate brushes for acrylic.  Although you wouldn’t usually use acrylic on top of oil colour on this occasion it would dry quicker so he picked white and yellow in the primary colours and dragged it over the board with an almost dry brush. ‘It just picks out the ribbing and the marking on the board.  A little on the horizon and a little bit on the foreground.  A little bit brighter down the bottom.  I’m hoping it will be dry in a minute.  Let’s start to get some light up through the top.  To get that nice glow effect you need some bright white.  I’m dragging a dry brush of colour over another colour so it starts to all blend in.’

 

He was using his fingers again then he used the glazing medium over the top.  ‘Normally it might take two or three months to finish a painting’ he told us.  Now he took some yellow ochre with a tiny bit of red ochre and used it very thinly – then wiped it off with his rag. ‘It starts to tie it in’ he said ‘it starts to tone it all back’.  ‘I lift it off so that highlights are left on the gesso background.’

 

Then with an ultramarine and ‘Zest It’ glaze he darkened up the sky and with the cloth lifted it off again.  ‘I tone this down a bit at the bottom with a bit of red ochre.  It gives it that bit of interest.  Matthew Alexander, my old art teacher would be horrified at the state of my brushes!’ he said.  With brown and yellow he achieved a nearly black shade to use in the foreground and to darken the very front.  With a palette knife he used a little bit of yellow ochre and red to warm it up a bit. ‘What you really do need is a real balance of colour’ he said. 

 

‘The thirds thing is really important’ he said ‘the golden segment is not so important – this is more about light and depth – balancing up and down, left and right so you are looking and the eye is led everywhere.  A little bit of yellow and buff to give some highlights.  Tiny little marks. 

 

Then to go for some fast drying white with the palette knife on the horizon.  Concentrate on the real glow – drops of paint on the palette knife and then scumble it over – it gives a good effect.  I usually use titanium white as a pure white, zinc white for mixing which is much softer.  See the scumbling effect starts to work now.’

 

In answer to questions he was giving us some of his tricks of the trade!  ‘I use one thin coat of gesso to start work with and dry it with the hairdryer.  Then one thicker coat and as it is drying I drag it around to make some nice effects.  The last thing you want is flat painting for this style.  I use a little ochre to warm it up  and this provides the base texture and colour.  See how the scumbling works with the knife and the gesso together!’